sleeper

sleeper is a pilot project involving the re-activation of train station sites with contemporary screen technologies to expand opportunities for engagement between commuters and professional artists.
Supported by the State Government through Arts Victoria, RMIT, City of Greater Dandenong and Connex Melbourne.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Sleeper – (dandenong)Dominic Redfern's contribution for the sleeper project, brings together two bookmarks from the history of the Dandenong region and train line and its contemporary present. Images of a dead Kangaroo Apple bush - indigenous to the area - are juxtaposed with decommissioned red gum sleepers and then situated in the brand new Dandenong station. The imagery calls up the past in a poetic and abstract manner way without suggesting a binary old good/new bad relationship. The two videos are of differing durations in order to randomise the combinations of imagery. The work has no beginning, middle or end but cycles seamlessly, providing a backdrop to the bustle of the station and creating a restful and reflective time-out for commuters.

Budgie man - (yarraman)
Responding to Yarraman station and the wildlife in the area, this work sees a partly transformed human with budgie. Budgie man further sees Zoe explore the area of performance art inspired video art into strange territory. Budgie man presents us with a new species many may not be familiar with the budgie fused with human. The idea of transformation and transporation is explored, here, you may not be the same person when you arrive at your destination.

Train Journey - (noble park)
Documenting the experience of an everyday journey on the train. Salote’s contribution to Sleeper captures the sheer banality that can be part of the train Journey experience. Eating, reading, day dreaming out the window and blank stares make up the day to day reality of train travel.
Public transport is depicted here for what it really is - an in between space, a transitional, non space from somewhere to somewhere else.

Fortune Teller - (sandown park)
A boarded up ticket box becomes a phantom space. The ticket seller/fortune teller while pretending to be prophetic, promises nothing more than just another everyday train experience.
Each day when one catches the train they are embarking on a game of chance, will they return, what happens to them ? where are they going ?
In Martine’s work, the old unused ticket box becomes a site for a mysterious ticket seller issuing tarot card like train tickets to the unsuspecting commuter.
As one peers through the various peepholes at Sandown park, we pick up bits of the story, fragments of information and train tickets that take on a whole other meaning.

Waiting - (springvale)
Two strangers meet and start up a conversation, are they coming or going ? something is happening or is it about to happen ? Cassandra Tytler’s piece extends her strange and slightly off kilter trash culture inspired quasi narratives featuring herself as a slightly unsettling and intense public transport user who strikes up a conversation with a stranger.

You never know quite what to make of Cassandra’s work, perverse humor, outrageous performances and bizarre narrative set ups - which is exactly how the artist wants it

For some the journey to and from work each day is the only time they spend in the public realm. The train stations act as gateways to public transport arteries, carrying commuters to their city bound cubicles and workbenches. Train stations are public sites but not the public places they once were. Temporary art interventions in public space can rupture the routine and expectations of the users of these spaces. People are momentarily taken out of their day-to-day habitual routines and invited to reflect. Artworks and installations have the potential to connect strangers by engaging them in a shared experience and encouraging dialogue, a re-engagement with our 'fellow travellers'.

Sleeper is a temporary art exhibition that takes place simultaneously in disused ticket booths at five stations on the Dandenong/Pakenham train line. Five artists have created site specific works using video and animation that will be shown from inside the unused ticket booths on the platforms. The video installations are an interface, prompting dialogue between between the artist and the public and potentially inspiring dialogue between fellow passengers.

The temporary artworks on show reveal the hidden narratives and the social possibilities. They let us perceive the space afresh and more intensely and make us aware of ourselves in time and space. Potentially they connect us and create a sense of ownership. No longer is the journey an in-between threshold, a space between work and home but it becomes a time and place to be experienced, injected with a touch of humanity and a liberating impact on the public imagination.